1. The percentage of women in professional orchestras rose from 5% to 50% after musicians unions forced them to put up screens to make auditions anonymous.

When evaluators didn't know the sex of the performers, they found that women were among best.

2. Less than 4% of the general population is over 6 feet tall - but a majority of CEOs are. Gladwell suspects that there is a bias (perhaps innate) to see height as a proper attribute of power.

(Doesn't this suggest that short men, like Napoleon and Lenin, who are shut out by this bias, will be more inclined than others to lead opposition movements? And who would follow them except other short men? I see a doctoral thesis here: "The Short Man's Army: Height Disadvantage and Revolution".)

GROUPS ARE STUPID

Gladwell also believes that groups are more likely to make stupid decisions. Because when other people agree with your hasty, incorrect judgements, you are more inclined to think them valid.

(The next time someone tells you to get a "reality check" by seeing if other people agree with you -- well, now you can tell them to buzz off.)